Eva Petrič, performance and video
Hayato Nakao, music
Eva Petrič Gr@y Matter – The Language of Shadows series, art photographs
NASA and USGS,  satellite images
Thanks to: Worldometer – real time world statistics, ArtEO / www.arteo.earth

The immersive performance We Are Like Butterflies – amidst holes in light combines video and sound projection in dialogue with the metamorphosising installation of hybrid butterflies, adapted especially for the space of Križanke Church. The residue of the performance, its echo, remains as the multimedia installation We Are Like Butterflies on view at Križanke Church from July 16 to August 13 2025.
The performance We Are Like Butterflies – amidst holes in light enables a view of our planet from low Earth orbit, as seen by astronauts at the International Space Station or as perceived by many satellites, including the Slovenian NEMO HD satellite, now circling the globe.
By combining data on human activities with satellite images, and highlighting them with shadow imagery, the artist outlines the shadow of humanity on the planet. “Shadows are part of us, part of our world, they are ‘holes in light’ that confront us with the consequences of our actions,” says Eva Petrič. Her performance is a poetic apology from humans to our one and only planet – Earth.
The performance invites the audience to join in John Lennon’s song Imagine, and imagine that all people live in peace… that all people share the whole world… At the same time, the performance raises the question of whether such a view is merely a figment of the imagination, or whether it can also reflect facts.
The performance culminates in the installation We Are Like Butterflies (Human Butterfly@ArtScienceSpirituality). Today the world (our planet and our home) is at a turning point. It is changing at an ever-faster pace, and we are all transforming with it. The forces that dominate our lives are transforming us into human-robot hybrids. As we become cyborgs, we respond accordingly to programmes that are no longer designed by nature alone. We exist in a fraction of infinity, yet we are like butterflies that flutter for a day but think that it is forever…
What remains thereafter? Art, science, spirituality… They float above us…